News in Chinese Media

Xinhua News Agency

    An exhibition of the most important archeological discoveries made in China over the past five decades will be held in Beijing by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage from August 13 to October 17.

     A total of 450 items from 32 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across China will be shown at the exhibition, titled "China's Cultural Heritage 1949-1999", at the exhibition hall of the National Museum of Chinese History and the Museum of Chinese Revolutionary History, according to Zhu Fenghan, deputy- director of the National Museum of Chinese History.

     "Among the precious cultural relics, many will be shown to the public for the first time," said Zhu.

     For instance, a pottery kettle more than 10,000 years old, one of China's oldest pottery vessels, found in Daoxian County in central China's Hunan Province, will be on display.

     The showpieces include an 8,000-year-old bone flute, China's oldest musical instrument, unearthed in Wuyang City in central China's Henan Province, as well as various jade articles 4,000 to 5,000 years old, and a large number of bronze artifacts from the ancient Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties (2100-221 B.C.)

     Zhu said that treasures of all sorts from the Qin Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty (221 B.C.-1644 A.D.) will also be exhibited.

     "Visitors will have a rare opportunity to enjoy the bronze galloping horse, discovered in a tomb in Wuwei City in northwest China's Gansu Province. The image of this horse has been designated as the symbol of China's tourism," said Zhu.

     At the same time, 135 items of cultural relics of modern times, which are of great historical value, will also be on exhibit.

     A website (http://www.wenwu50.com) for the exhibition also has been created.

Xinhua News Agency

    The Tianjin Administration for Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine was established today in a bid to bring the north China port city's relevant services up to international standards.

     The new administration is a merger of three former bureaus: the Tianjin Commodity Inspection Bureau, the Tianjin Animals and Plants Quarantine Bureau, and the Tianjin Health Inspection Bureau.

     The move is aimed at simplifying inspections at ports of entry and exit, raising efficiency, and doing away with procedural redundancies.

     As a major coastal port, Tianjin handles a huge amount of traffic and shoulders a heavy inspection burden.

     The new organization will also reform its inspection procedures, supervisory system, license registration system, and import-export functions.

Xinhua News Agency

    The Chinese army is developing new technology for its battle tanks to allow them to go through water to improve their use as assault vehicles.

     A tank regiment of the Shenyang Military Area Command of the People's Liberation Army began working on technology for the project with young military personnel and experienced scientists two years ago to produce an amphibious combat vehicle.

     A series of experiments and use in training showed the equipment to be safe, convenient, reliable, and effective. The tank went through a 188 meter trough of 4.8-meter-deep water quickly and was ready for action only three seconds after getting up on land.

     The regiment has also developed new stealth tactics for amphibious operations and swift landings to further improve its combat effectiveness.

Xinhua News Agency

    China's real estate taxes were cut by a big margin as of August 1, 1999, the Ministry of Finance and State Tax Administration report.

     The tax cut focuses on sales tax, taxes on deeds, and incremental tax on land, according to China Securities.

     Individual housing purchases are exempt from sales tax on the secondary market on the condition that the buyer lives in the unit for more than a year.

     Taxes on housing deeds held by individuals have been cut by half and housing sold by individuals is exempt from incremental duties at present.

     At the same time, the sale of empty housing is both sales and deed tax exempt until the end of the year 2000, provided that the building was built before June 30, 1998.

     The Ministry of Finance and the State Tax Administration have also ordered changes in various regulations of local governments to bring them in accord with the new guidelines.

Xinhua News Agency

    ITT Fluid Technology, one of the world's biggest pump manufacturers, is interested in finding a Chinese partner to jointly manufacture giant flood-control pumps, according to Richard Labrecque, president and CEO of ITT.

     The pump, capable of drawing 35 tons of water per second, is much needed in China for anti-flood use, the Ministry of Water Resources was quoted by today's China Daily as saying.

     Subject to monsoon climates, China has to fight floods every year. Last year, the country was hit by the most severe flooding since 1954.

     The Chinese market is an important one for ITT, although it accounts for only one percent of the company's total sales at present and its business in China is slowing down, Labrecque said.

     However, the slow-down will be temporary, as China is adjusting its economic structure and reducing its industrial projects, he added.

Xinhua News Agency

    The Ministry of Agriculture has called for the lifting of illegal fines and arbitrary quotas which are hampering the sustained growth of China's township enterprises.

     Township industry, a major contributor to the country's economic growth, has endured unfair fines as well as a sluggish market and difficulties in obtaining bank loans, the ministry was quoted by Tuesday's China Daily as saying.

     "Illegal fines, arbitrary quotas and other unreasonable measures imposed on township and village enterprises have been on the rise this year," said Jiang Yongtao, director of the Township Enterprises Bureau of the ministry.

     In the wake of the nationwide campaigns to ease the financial burdens on farmers, many local governments have shifted the unjustifiable charges borne by farmers to township firms instead, Jiang said.

     Moreover, many small and medium-sized township enterprises are plagued by acute fund shortages, as banks are reluctant to lend them money and funding from government sources is dwindling, he added.

     Developing township enterprises has been slated as a key strategy and a long-term, fundamental policy by the government. Officials believe they will contribute to the flourishing rural economy and to boosting overall economic growth, the newspaper said.

     Township and village businesses grew 17.3 percent last year, contributing about three percentage points to the country's 7.8 percent gross domestic product growth.

Xinhua News Agency

    Guangzhou, the capital of China's Guangdong Province, has begun a new program designed to help more of its unemployed people find jobs.

     The city's Labor Bureau says that it will provide free job consultation and information on job openings for jobless people and training courses free of charge or at discounted prices.

     Jiang Yun, the bureau's head, says that they plan to use 18 million yuan (about two million US dollars) from the city's special job fund to support the new program, which is expected to help 150,000 jobless people find work.

     In related developments, the city has developed preferential measures to attract college graduates. Economic development, personnel, labor, finance, social security, public security, and grain departments have all been told to help attract more university graduates to the city to help make it a success.

Xinhua News Agency

    China started a massive survey yesterday on the utilization of the Chinese language and characters across the country as a measure to promote the use of standard Chinese or Putonghua, today's "China Daily" reports.

     The paper says that the survey, given approval by the State Council, is the first on the use of a language since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. It is launched by the Ministry of Education and the State Working Committee on Language and Characters (SWCLC).

     It will cover 600,000 people aged 15 to 69 in all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, said SWCLC Vice-Director Zhu Xinjun.

     The survey will be targeted mainly at civil servants, teachers, students and those working in the commercial, medical and mass media sectors, Zhu said.

     It will focus on the spread of putonghua, as well as tracking the use of nearly 100 dialects and over 60 ethnic languages across the country.

     The survey will start in Shanghai Municipality, the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning, Gansu and Yunnan, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. These areas have relatively more dialects and ethnic minority languages, Zhu said.

     The central government instituted the simplification of Chinese characters and the popularization of Putonghua in the early 1950s.

     The survey, due to be completed in 2001, is expected to help provide a basis for future study schemes in Putonghua, dialects and the languages of the 55 ethnic groups.

     It will help enhance people's awareness of upgrading language skills.

     The SWCLC has set up a special task force to implement the survey. It will give four-day training courses to officials from across the country responsible for the use of language and characters, says the paper.

Xinhua News Agency

    Surgeons in this capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province have successfully replanted a severed thumb by connecting a vein in the thumb with the artery in the injured hand.

     The surgery was performed on a 37-year-old man recently in the Central Hospital affiliated to the Shenyang Medical College.

     Replanting a thumb by connecting artery with vein is a very rare medical procedure, according to Tian Lijie, the surgeon who performed the operation.

     Instead of adopting the normal medical practice of connecting artery with artery, and vein with vein, Tian and his team adopted a vein-to-artery method, connecting the vein vessels of the thumb with the artery vessels of the injured hand.

     Doctors at the hospital called the operation a complete success, and said swelling caused by the procedure is shrinking gradually and the mended joint now has a smooth flow of blood.

China Daily
Author:  Zhao Huanxin

    CHINA'S "Silicon Valley," Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, is projecting a 20 per cent annual growth rate to post 130 billion yuan (US$15.6 billion) of gross domestic product by the year 2010, sources from the park said yesterday.

    In its latest effort to power the country's economy into the new millennium, China has decided to speed up the development pace to reshape Zhongguancun of Beijing into a world-class high-tech hub within 10 years, noted the park's development scheme, made available to China Daily yesterday.

    Located in Haidian District in northwestern Beijing, Zhongguancun includes 68 universities and 213 research and development (R&D) institutions including the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It scores several thousand items of R&D achievements every year, according to the document.

    Since China's first national science and technology development zone was created in Zhongguancun in 1988, high technological companies have been growing rapidly in the area.

    The more than 4,000 firms in Zhongguancun chalked up sales of 45.1 billion yuan (US$5.4 billion) last year, 43 per cent of which came from the software industry, according to the latest statistics from the park.

    The Zhongguancun park will be built into a highly competitive national science and technology innovation demonstrative base, and a vanguard in transforming scientific results into production, as well as a centre to train high-caliber talents, according to Kou Zuopeng, an official with the park.

    At the core of the park's development programme is to expand the software, information technology and computer manufacturing sectors and prioritize research in biological pharmaceuticals, new materials and environmental protection, noted the official.

    Plans have been drafted for land use, construction of the ecological environment, traffic system and information networks, according to the park sources.

    Beijing New Technology Industries Development Experimental Zone, the kernel of the park, yesterday created three websites on the Internet, further fortifying the cyberspace infrastructure for the bustling high-tech capital.

    The websites, www.zgcpark.com, www.zgcscience.com and expert.zhongguancun.com.cn, will allow businesses and universities in the park to share information on research and development achievements, market demands, and have access to a large pool of experts in Beijing.

    Li Jinshan, director of Haidian District, said the creation of the websites will blaze a new trail in making full use of the abundant technology and talent resources in Zhongguancun as it ushers into a digital era.

    More than 3,100 sets of sophisticated equipment worth 3 billion yuan (US$361 million) from Qinghua, Beijing and other prestigious universities and institutions have been offered on-line for use by other companies.

    

    

China Daily

    CHINA has initiated a nationwide educational programme that aims to teach teenagers how to protect themselves when harassed or attacked.

    Four hundred students received tips and lessons on self-protection yesterday at Huangcun No 2 Middle School, located in Beijing's suburban Daxing County.

    School teachers presented several programmes to teach the teenagers how to fight back when attacked. Lectures focusing on physical and psychological health care were also given.

    In addition, students were told where to go if they need legal assistance or protection.

    The goal of the programmes was to better prepare the teenagers when they are confronted with psychological problems, disasters or accidents.

    The Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, a youth organization in China, called on all its subcommittees at provincial levels to improve their efforts to help the youngsters learn how to respond when difficult situations arise.

    China now has 360 million people under 18.

    "The school has set up a good example for the whole society," said Zhao Yong, secretary of the secretariat of the committee.

    Ever since a 14-year-old girl was kidnapped and murdered near her home in Beijing on the night of the "meteorite shower" last November, an increasing amount of attention has been given to protecting teenagers.

    The majority of people said the incident may have been avoided if the girl had adequate knowledge of self-protection, according to a discussion held by the media after the tragedy.

    The Beijing Adolescents' Rights Protection Commission organized a training camp just a week after the incident.

    Sources at the commission revealed that of the 400 students who took part in the camp, 90 per cent said it was helpful.

    

    

Dalian Daily

    With the last house being torn down on Aug. 8, the transformation project of tiger beach bottomland came to its final completion, and a new round of beautifying and greening project was started.

    It is known that this place belongs to the tiger beach scenic spot and has been listed as key projects by the municipal government.

    Starting from Aug. 1, in eight daysˇŻ time, 150 temporarily-built houses were torn down and 316 households were moved to other places.

    The beautifying and greening work is under way now. The former tiger beach bottomland will soon become a picturesque green land.

    

    

China Radio International

    China plans to launch a nationwide campaign to build more drug- free communities.

    This was revealed at the ongoing National Anti-Narcotics Conference, which opened Monday in Baotou, in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

    The campaign aims at making the smallest social units drug-free first. The combination of an increasing number of drug-free communities is expected to finally lead to the complete elimination of narcotics across the country.

    The Baotou meeting also stressed the importance of education in anti-narcotics work.

    Public Security Minister Jia Chunwang called on all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities to set up their own anti-drug education centers within the next three years.

    He also urged that more anti-narcotics activities be carried out in universities, and primary and secondary schools, and encouraged the publication of more anti-narcotics literary and artistic works. ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙